Approximation of Plancks constant and work function using Photoelectric effect on the particle nature of light

Emily Jane Borja1, Marc Francis M. Labata1, Ian Paguigan1 and James Clifford Talabong2 * 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City 2 Our Institute, Our University, Address *Corresponding author: third.author@email.univ.edu

Abstract
This experiment aims to demonstrate the particle nature of light by photoelectric effect. Stopping potential was measured against different intensities of yellow ( = 578 nm) and green ( = 546 nm) light from first order spectral lines of mercury. No significant relationship was observed for stopping potential and percent transmission. However, charging time was inversely proportional to the percent transmission for the yellow light which implied more photoelectrons were emitted for greater intensity. Stopping potentials for green light was noted to be higher than of yellow light. Ratio of Plancks constant to electron charge and work function of the photocathode were determined experimentally from the plot of frequency vs. stopping potential from the first and second orders of spectral lines of mercury. The h/e ratio from the plot was 2.345 10 -15 eVs with 43.29% error from the literature value and a work function of 0.439 eV. Linear relationship was observed from the plot of stopping potential vs. frequency. Keywords: photoelectric effect, Plancks constant, work function, stopping potential

1. Introduction
The emission of electrons in a solid surface such as metals when electromagnetic (EM) radiation (e.g. light) hits its surface is called photoelectric effect. This phenomenon was discovered in 1886 by Heinrich Hertz and was investigated further by Wilhelm Hallwachs and Philipp Lenard [1, 2] using a circuit similar to Figure 1.

Figure 1. A circuit for a photoelectric effect experiment. When enough energy is transferred to the electrons in the cathode from the photons on the EM radiation, the electrons maybe ejected from the cathodes surface and a current is produced.

The photoelectric effect can be understood clearly when light is viewed as a particle, rather than a wave. Einstein first used this concept to explain the results of Hallwachs and Lenards photoelectric effect experiment/s [1, 2]. He assumed that light consists of discrete quantities called photons, each with energy dependent on frequency, E=hf (1) where E is the energy, f is the frequency of the radiation and h is Plancks constant[3]. When the photons hit the cathode, there is either a total energy transfer from the photon to the electrons on the surface or none at all. When energy transfer does occur, the electrons maybe ejected from the surface when the work function (denoted as ), the minimum amount of energy an electron must have to escape from a surface [1], is reached or exceeded. When exceeded, the excess energy from the emission becomes the electrons kinetic energy [3].

Figure 2. A photoelectric experiment circuit with the E field reversed. Even when the E field is reversed, some electrons with enough kinetic energy will still be able to escape and go to the anode. The least voltage needed to stop the electrons from traveling into the anode is called V 0 or the stopping potential.

The maximum kinetic energy the emitted electrons depends on the stopping potential V0, KEmax=eVo where e is the charge of an electron. With this, Einstein used the conservation of energy, E=hf= KEmax + Substituting KEmax for eVo from equation (2) into equation (3), the resulting equation will be hf= eVo + Transforming the equation to solve for the Vo, equation (4) becomes V0= (h/e)f /e

(2)

(3) (4)

(5)

From the equation above, if a stopping potential vs. frequency graph is produced, the slope is equal to h/e while the y-intercept is equal to /e [3]. In this experiment, the photoelectric effect was studied more closely using a mercury lamp and an h/e apparatus. The effect of intensity and effect of wavelength on photoelectric current was observed and studied.

2. Methodology
The following set-up suggest thats light is a particle.The light source is a mercury vapor lamp. The mercury atoms produce strong emission lines at different frequencies or colors. Photons of light of different colors are separated by a transmission grating that diffracts light of different colors into different directions. A lens focuses the light onto a photoelectric head, where the photons strike a metal cathode and eject electrons. The electrons are collected on the anode. Electrons are negatively charged, and as more and more electrons gather on the anode, the anode becomes more and more negatively charged. A potential difference or voltage develops between the cathode and the anode. The electrons already collected on the anode repel electrons ejected from the cathode at a later time. It is convenient to measure the electron energy in units of electron volt (eV). In SI units 1 eV = 1.6 x 10 -19J. If the potential difference between the cathode and anode has grown to x volts, then electrons ejected from the cathode need an energy of at least x eV to overcome this potential difference and to reach the anode. By measuring the maximum voltage between cathode and anode, we can determine the maximum energy of the electrons that reached the anode. The maximum energy E of electrons that reached the anode in eV has the same numerical value as the maximum voltage in V.

Figure 3. The Pasco photoelectric eect setup

For the effect of intensity on photoelectric effect, dark voltage was recorded by blocking the mercury light and measuring its voltage. This serves as the voltage of the surroundings or the blank. This must be subtracted to the voltage readings which were then recorded. The h/e apparatus was adjusted to the first order yellow spectral line. Then the yellow filter was placed on the white reflective mask. Maximum voltage was attained by twisting the apparatus until the highest value is attained. The transmission filter was positioned over the colored filter so that the light passes through 100%. This reading through this is the stopping potential. The time required to recharge the instrument was also measured. This was done by pressing and releasing the discharge button. The transmission filter was positioned to 80, 60, 40 and 20% transmission to obtain the stopping potentials for several trials. The time requiredwas also determined. For the effect of wavelength on photoelectric current, a color was chosen from the first order spectrum then the h/e apparatus was adjusted such that only the chosen color falls upon the opening of the h/e apparatus. The voltage readings were recorded. The steps were repeatedfor at least five colors in the spectrum. All the procedure were repeated for the second order.

3. Results and Discussion

To measure the effect of intensity on the Photoelectric current, Yellow and Green Spectrum were used. Table 1 shows the stopping potential and charge time data taken from the two color specimen. Dark voltage measured was -0.260 V. Table 1: Stopping Potential and Charge Time of Yellow and Green Spectrum Color Color # 1 Yellow Color # 2 Green % Transmission Stopping Potential (V) Charge Time(s) Stopping Potential (V) Charge Time (s) 100 0.981 6.51 0.980 12.83 80 0.881 7.20 0.968 8.27 60 0.861 13.31 0.958 8.20 40 0.854 10.06 0.933 6.16 20 0.824 12.43 0.898 4.12 Dark Voltage: -0.260 V The classical theory of light allows an unbounded stopping potential. Continually pumping energy into the photoelectric plate energizes its electron, eventually freeing them regardless of the anode-cathode potential they must overcome. If N is the number of electrons that fly from the anode to the cathode in a small time interval, t, then N is equal to the amount of energy available to electrons in t divided be the amount of energy for a single electron to make the trip. This is given theoretically as (6) where P is the energy of the incident light on the photoelectric plate per unit time, W is the amount of energy needed to free an electron from the photoelectric plate (Work function), e is the charge and V is the potential. Given this equation, the rate of movement from the anode to the cathode is

(7) However, , where N is the total number of transferred electrons, and C is the capacitance between the at

anode and the cathode. Thus, integrating, and assuming

(8) and hence,

(9) Since the work function W is small compared to the total energy of the incident light, the preceding equation is reduced to: (10) From this, since , the potential is unbounded. Furthermore, the energy of light waves and P is proportional to the intensity of light. The intensity of light incident on the photoelectric plate must scale down by the transmission factor, f. From the results in Table 1, Stopping Potential is directly proportional to the % Transmission, the stopping potential for the yellow light is relatively higher than that of the green light, while the % transmission and the charging time, which, theoretically, must be directly proportional with each other, was not seen based from the results taken. Table 1 also shows that the stopping potential decreases as the transmission factor (%Transmission) is reduced. The classical model of light predicts that the stopping potential will drop off as the intensity decreases. Stopping voltage potential relies on a work constant of the detector Wo. While stopping the potential does not depend on the intensity, the work constant is dependent on the light intensity. Slight drops are due to the change in the work constant. This implies that the maximum energy of the photoelectrons is reduced due to the transmission filter. The quantum theory of light predicts that charging time increase as we decrease intensity. In the experiment carried out, highest readings were measured for the 100% transmissions in both green and yellow light. These timing records were performed using a stopwatch and manual readings from the voltmeter, and are subject to error. Different and successful lower wavelengths of light have corresponding increase in the stopping potential. Stopping potential is related to the kinetic energy using Equation 2. Kinetic energy is directly related to the stopping potential V. Thus the lower wavelengths had increased frequency and kinetic energy. Data shows that this quantum relationship holds. Second order colors have twice the wavelength. Increased wavelengths correspondingly have correspondingly lower frequency and kinetic energy and therefore, lower stopping potential. Our measurements of stopping potential follow the quantum model of light. Clearly they do not follow the results as predicted by the classical theory. Frequencies from the standard values of the wavelength of the spectral lines of mercury were plotted versus the intensity in both first order and second order colors. Table 2 shows the data. Table 2. Frequency and Stopping Potentials of First Order and Second Order Colors Spectral Lines of Mercury Wavelength (nm) Frequency (x1014 Stopping Potential Hz) (V) Violet 405 7.41 1.137 First Order Colors Blue 436 6.88 1.114 Green 546 5.49 0.778 Yellow 578 5.19 0.694 Violet 810 3.70 0.486 Second Order Blue 872 3.44 0.372 Colors Green 1092 3.74 0.206 Yellow 1156 2.59 0.198 With these data, and given the equation, (11) it is shown that stopping potential are inversely and directly proportional with the wavelength and , respectively. The stopping potential for the second order is much lower than the first order because wavelengths are increased by a factor of two in the second order colors.

4. Conclusion
The experiment contradicted the classical wave model of light since increasing the intensity had no significant effect on kinetic energy of the photoelectrons for yellow ( = 578 nm) and green ( = 546 nm) light from the first order spectral lines of mercury. Intensity was varied using a transmission filter for 100%, 80%, 60%, 40% and 20% transmission and was plotted against measured stopping potential which is theoretically equivalent to the kinetic energy of the photoelectron. Although stopping potential dropped slightly as percent transmission was decreased, this can be accounted to charge leaks due to finite impedance of the external circuit. The relationship between the photoelectric current and the intensity was also investigated. For yellow light, as the intensity increased, charging time decreased. This can be verified that as the greater intensity, more photoelectrons can be emitted which implied less charging time to reach a given potential. This experiment was also consistent with the particle nature of light that kinetic energy of photoelectron is proportional to the frequency of incident light. This was confirmed using the first and second order spectral lines of mercury. As order of spectral line was increased, the frequency decreased consequently stopping potential decreased. A plot of stopping potential vs. frequency of light was obtained and by Einsteins equation on photoelectric effect, Plancks constant and work function of the photocathode were determined experimentally. The calculated ratio of Plancks constant to electron charge, h/e, was 2.345 10-15 eVs with 43.29 % error from the accepted value of 4.135 10-15 eVs. The material used cannot be determined by using the work function of 0.439 eV since the smallest known work function is of Cesium (~2.1 eV). The threshold frequency was also determined that below 1.87 1014 Hz, no photoemission could occur. Sources of error in the experiment could be from the conditions for Einsteins theory to be accurate only at temperature of 0 K. At room temperature, electrons have no well-defined energies and may escape the surface of the metal less than the work function thus some electrons may escape with greater energy than predicted and that actual stopping potential may be greater than the theoretical value. However, this experiment was still able to meet the objectives by demonstrating the photoelectric effect as proof to the particle theory of light. Improvements could be done for accuracy by using a completely dark laboratory so stray lights could not interfere in the procedures. Accuracy of the h/e apparatus and digital multimeter in reading stopping potential could also be considered.

Acknowledgements References
1. H.Young, R. Freedman, and L. Ford, University Physics with Modern Physics, Chapter 38, Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore, 2009 2. M. Fowler, The Photoelectric Effect, <http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/252/photoelectric_effect.html> 3. E. Agra, et. al., Physics 73.1 Manual, Philippine Foundation for Physics, Inc., 2007